The crazy thing was that I didn’t pay for that ad! I simply shared the news of my book on my Facebook page, yet somehow it magically appeared under sponsored ads. My friend suggested that Amazon must have paid for the ad, but that seemed unlikely to me.

But a week later my friend sent another ad—which was actually a Facebook post written by a client:

It was all so odd that I had to do a little investigating. That’s when I found this article from Mashable about Amazon’s new marketing campaign on Facebook. But the article didn’t mention that Amazon would be sponsoring user posts—the ones with purchase links right back to Amazon!

So here’s what I can surmise is happening.

Amazon is monitoring Facebook to find links back to its books and possibly other products too.

Amazon then decides to sponsor the post as an ad, and picks up the tab on the $.75+ per click.

Both the author and Amazon win since ads lead to book sales. (Well, we can assume the ads lead to book sales or else Amazon wouldn’t waste its money, right?)

I have to say that though I found this a bit confusing at first, I’m quite grateful for the extra boost from Amazon.

So if you’re an author with a book to promote, why not share an Amazon link on your public profile and see what happens? Hopefully you’ll hear from a friend or two who see your ad, and more importantly, it could lead to an increase in book sales.

If you’ve benefited from sponsored ads on Facebook, please share details in the comments section below!

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